It’s impossible for that headline to not sound a little inappropriate, but trust me, the video is clean-cut and so very awwwwww. Five-year-old Daniel Mulligan, of Ojai, California, became obsessed with garbage trucks at a young age, after his mother “showed him YouTube videos of garbage trucks as a way to ease his fear of the trucks’ loud noise.” The trucks reassure Mulligan, who’s autistic, because of their “order and precision.”

Plus, they’re full of presents!

“He knows which trash can is going out on which day and notices them when we’re driving and notices if they’re out of line,” Newberger said. “We will literally be waiting outside for hours on trash day because he hears the truck in the neighborhood and can’t focus on anything else.”

On Monday, Daniel and his parents…did their usual routine of waiting outside for the recyclables collector, Manuel Sanchez, to arrive, when Sanchez surprised them all. Sanchez, an employee of a private, family-owned trash collection company, got out of his truck and presented Daniel with a toy garbage truck of his own.

The family was even more surprised when they realized it was the same toy truck that Daniel received at Christmas but accidentally broke it the same day. (Via)

Always be good to your garbage collector. They know how much you drink, when you get married, divorced, or have a death in the family, how old your children are, how many pets you have, what you got for Christmas, and all those secrets you thought no one knew.

As the parent of an autistic child, this brought tears to my eyes. We are very fortunate that our son’s Autism is a very mild form, but it is always so heartwarming when nice things happen for folks who you JUST KNOW are going to face a LOT of adversity in their lives.